Of baked potatoes, microwaves, grandparents, and being resolute

A Saturday morning sunrise to remember in 2024.

I call them: A baked potato in the microwave moments.

Years ago, my grandparents gifted my family a microwave oven. It was the first high-tech appliance I had seen in my relatively short time on Earth living with parents who for months unplugged our black-and-white TV and heated the house with hand-split logs.

Later, my grandparents visited to spend time with us after the day’s chores were complete…Water tanks filled, stalls mucked, animals fed, etc. When they arrived, I mentioned to my mother that I was hungry.

‘Put a potato in the microwave,’ she said.

‘We don’t have hours to wait on that,’ my grandmother immediately responded.

Little did Grandma Helen know that the new contraption on the kitchen countertop could bake a plastic-wrapped potato in as few as 5 minutes. Quite a contrast to the hour or more the aluminum-foil-wrapped spuds took in her conventional oven at home.

To this day, my grandparents’ shock and surprise as I was eating a baked potato slathered in butter and sour cream after only a few minutes stays with me.

Each time technology surprises me, I think about my grandparents and that silly (but delicious) microwave-baked potato. I believe they’d be impressed by most of the technology we take for granted today: Debit card transactions, Zoom meetings, streaming services, smart phones, Amazon Prime, CT scans, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, Dominion Voting Systems…You get the idea.

We live in fascinating, fast-changing times.

That struck me last week when I took my beloved car, Betty, in for servicing. At the dealership, I handed my key fob to the manager. He placed it on some sort of automotive oracle that immediately read what Betty needed tending to that day.

Of course, I’ve seen this play out several times before. Betty and I have been ride or die for years now. For some reason, last week’s download of Betty’s deets really hit me and got me thinking about baked potatoes, microwaves, and grandparents.

Unfortunately, Betty needed a lot of work and my fascination with technological advancements quickly turned to regret for such developments and my immediately dwindling bank account. I digress.

The next day, as I was getting a haircut, the lady who has cut my hair for years, Tracey, asked if I’d made any New Year’s resolutions.

To my surprise, I hadn’t even considered resolutions going into 2024. Seriously. No self-talk about ‘more exercise,’ ‘less brisket for breakfast,’ ‘fewer purchases from Amazon.’ None of that.

I responded, ‘I’m too old for that stuff. Did you make any resolutions?’

Tracey had. She wants to travel more this year. She even has plans to visit Chicago and go to a baseball game at Wrigley Field.

Feeling sheepish for not being so future-sighted, I wondered if there was anything in my world worthy of being resolute about.

And, that brings me back to the A baked potato in the microwave moments. I guess I’m resolute about being:

• More impressed.

• More shocked. (In a good way. Not the shock I felt when my doctor recently asked: ‘So, do you have any grandkids yet?’ Bad shock, people.)

• More fascinated.

• More open to learning.

• More open to seeing something new each day.

I’m pretty sure a mental health professional would caution me to, ‘Whoa. Slow down there, sister.’ And, I agree.

I’ll take it one day at a time. Keeping my eyes open for something that takes my breath away (Again, in a good way) or gives me pause.

For instance, Saturday’s sunrise (see the photo). The colors that early morning filled the bedroom with such intense pink I couldn’t believe The Weed was sleeping through it.

I turned over, grabbed my phone, and took the photo resting on my pillow, knowing it was Day No. 1 of A baked potato in the microwave moments for 2024.